Be Mindful Of Online Consequences

Discussing the safety of girl scouts selling cookies online reminded me that we haven’t discussed the safety of kids and teens doing anything online recently – which couldn’t be important for myfirstpaycheck.com or families – so I wanted to pass on a few tips for parents from Craig Peters, whose company, CKP Creative advises consumer companies on Web site and social networking strategies, from an interview with Dom Giordano in the Philadelphia Bulletin.

Craig says, “A couple of rules are important, particularly for younger kids: (1) Keep the computer in a common family area, not in the child’s room. (2) Be trusting. Sure, you can install monitoring software or other restrictive tools, but your kid will get around it in 10 seconds, and you’ll have lost a bond of trust. (3) Be involved. Get online. Set up a Facebook profile. Start Twittering. Get a feel for what this stuff is all about. (4) Talk to your kids. When relevant articles hit the news, talk to them about it. (Do a Google search for “sexting” and look what comes up.) Talk to them about how actions have consequences — and that being online can amplify those consequences.”

I think these are great tips for parents (and their kids), what are other things you are doing to keep your kids safe online?